Fear Factor

Acts 20:35

April 10, 2005 | Ray Pritchard

For the past few months I’ve been preaching a series of sermons from I Peter. We’re taking a break from that series for the next two weeks so we can focus on Christian giving. That fact is noteworthy for two reasons:

1) We rarely take time to address the issue of giving from the pulpit. I last talked about it in an extended fashion in September 2003. You’d have to go back quite a few years to find the time before that.

2) This is the right time to do it. When we started the Legacy Campaign in 2003, we set a goal of paying the $3 million cost by Thanksgiving 2005. So far we have given over $2 million toward that goal. At the present moment, we still owe about $893,000 with 32 Sundays left between now and Thanksgiving. This is a good time to stop and think about the challenge before us.

But there is an even bigger issue involved than finishing the Legacy Campaign. We need to understand what God says about Christian giving. We need to invite the supernatural to invade the natural. When you understand what God says about your money, and when you begin to believe it and put it into practice, you will be inviting God’s supernatural power to invade and occupy your natural life. And when that happens, you’ll never be the same again.

A few days ago, Pastor Howard Duncan sent me a copy of an email he sent to Gail Tornow, our Deaconess of Prayer Ministry. The first part of his email contained the best summary I’ve seen of what we’re trying to do at Calvary this year. Our 2005 theme is “The Church in Many Places.” Here’s how Howard explained it:

To accomplish this theme we are seeking to:

Do you have any thoughts or questions about this post?